I've got a Confession

I've got a confession. In a previous post I admitted to owning six bikes. That's not the whole truth. It's time to come clean. I've got another bike. I was very young, it was a different time (Richard Nixon was President) and buying the bike was an impulsive decision. It was a Follis. It was a brand that I had never heard of before, but it was made in France, and had strange words like Tour de Flanders on it. It was a good bike. It took me on several RAGBRAIs, and I just could not part with it. I had dreamed of racing bikes, and at the time, this was as close to a race bike as I was going to get. So, the bike followed me through life, even though I haven't ridden it since 1989.

I had mostly forgotten about this bike, but dug it out of storage to steal its drop bars when doing the Rig Alley Cat conversion.

When Cory was at my place on Saturday as we were preparing for Cranksgiving, he took one look at the poor, abused bike and said "Looks like a fixie project bike". I quickly dismissed his comment as lunacy.

After hanging out this weekend at Cranksgiving, with the all the cool kids riding fixies, I went home and did some reading. I read about the training benefits, the basic connection to the bike, and the fun of the very simplest form of cycling. I also did a little thinking about some way I could make this happen.

As it turns out, (and as Cory's sharp eye quickly noticed) this bike is a good candidate for a fixie conversion. It has a steel frame and horizontal rear dropouts.

Hmmm. Note to self - stop at the hardware store and buy some sandpaper . . .